Far-IR to Submm SEDs for local galaxies: Herschel, Planck and the HRS

Abstract

AbstractThe Herschel Space Observatory and the Planck satellite are providing radical improvements to our knowledge of the spectral energy distributions of galaxies in the far-IR and submm. We here present the results of the first combination of Herschel and Planck fluxes of local galaxies from the Herschel Reference Sample (HRS) survey, covering galaxies at distances between 15 and 25 Mpc. This combination provides information on SEDs in eight bands from 60μm, using IRAS, to 1.4mm using Planck. We apply a similar fitting procedure to this data as applied to the Planck ERCSC-detected nearby galaxies and confirm the result that dust significantly colder than 20K is common in local galaxies. It is early days for this kind of study, but it is clear that the new generation of satellites are already adding considerably to our knowledge of the far-IR/submm properties of galaxies.